I can't believe "The Lies of Locke Lamora" was a debut novel. It is far and away one of the greatest fantasy novels I have ever read.

Seriously. Fucking awesome.

Logged

All right, we are going to use a fan brush here and uh why don't you take some hunter green and we are going to put a happy little bush right down over here in the corner there and that'll just be our little secret and if you tell anyone that that bush is there I will come to your house and I will cut you.

You won't be disappointed in that series, Darilon. Being so prolific, Sanderson's work can be hit or miss, but Mistborn is a hit.

As for my reading, I just finished Insurgent (the second book of the Divergent trilogy). I'm enjoying this series, but after reading the first two books in a row, I'm taking a breather so I don't get burnt out. The big reveal at the end could be seen as predictable, but the tension of the writing kept it interesting. I also enjoyed seeing all the dark little secrets all the factions do that show the chinks in the armor of the supposed utopias. e.g.

I'm about 4 or 5 chapters into Allegiant (Divergent book 3), and so far I'm not digging it as much as the first two. I'm invested in the story and everything, but the dual-protagonist perspective is not working for me. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of dual-protagonist perspectives and initially thought it was a nice change of pace (in Allegiant, the two POVs are Tris and Tobias), but the Tobias chapters have been limp. Veronica Roth, so far at least, cannot write a male character effectively. Tobias' chapters, so far, read kinda girly/emo-kid and too much like Tris's. Tobias is supposed to be a tough guy and I don't read any tough guy machismo in his chapters so far. I get it that thick-skinned tough guys often have traumatic pasts that made them thick-skinned in the first place and hitting that hot button can be emotional, but tough guys don't turn into dishrags and still carry themselves with bravado in the face of adversity.

I hope Tobias's chapters improve, or at the very least have a different voice. Right now, I have to keep referring back to the beginning of each chapter to remember who's narrating. Not good at all.

This could lend well to a classic literary discussion. The idea of how well authors write characters of opposite genders. It's easy to make blanket statements that one can't effectively write the other, but that would be false. For example, we know George RR Martin writes female characters exceptionally well. Ask anyone who their favorite A Song of Ice and Fire character is, and they'll likely mention one of the ladies, because they're awesome. And in Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell penned Rhett Butler. You can't ask for a more "man's man" than Rhett Butler. When he delivers his classic line at the end of the movie, it's pretty badass. It's manly, ya know? EDIT: And though I haven't read Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy yet, I've been told that Peeta (the boy) is a more compellingly written character than Katniss (the girl).

When he delivers his classic line at the end of the movie, it's pretty badass.

Ah, yes, the first cinematic burn ^^

I finished rereading Dan Brown's Robert Langdon thrillers. Kind of hard to place Brown's view on religion, since The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol are somewhat polar opposites in terms of theme. I'd rate the books Angels & Demons>Inferno>The Lost Symbol>The Da Vinci Code.

Also read the first two Outlander books and am hooked. I plan on rereading the Sword of Truth books as well now that a new one has recently come out.

I'm about halfway through Allegiant and my opinion is still the same. I'm invested in the story because this book provides some much-needed worldbuilding. However, the dual protagonist perspectives are still lousy. Unless I look at the narrator's name under the chapter number, I can't tell if it's Tris or Tobias because they both sound like petulant girls who share one brain.

Veronica Roth took a tough guy character and emasculated him. She clearly cannot write a man's voice. I'm not too happy with this trend of leading men not being men.

Reading Sanderson's Swordbreaker because I am told it connects with the new Words of Radiance. I actively avoided reading Swordbreaker years ago, but am capitulating to the insistence of my friend who says it's good.

I finished reading Allegiant. The last 1/3 of the book read quickly with tons of action and it made the dual-protagonist perspective work because, for once, they were in wholly separate places. My generally negative opinion of that book still remains, though. I mentioned the character narration ad-nauseum, but now I'll address the plot. I appreciate the worldbuilding to bolster what many believe is a flimsy premise in the first book (though it's certainly not the first to pigeonhole people into 5 factions- Brave New World placed people into 5 castes a long time ago), but some of the characters' actions seemed arbitrary, illogical, not wholly in line with series continuity, and as if Roth was trying to write (sometimes retcon) herself out of several corners.

I'm cool with the author killing off Tris- the main character. A beloved character biting the dust can be a literary masterstroke; George RR Martin is expert at this. However, the way Tris's death was done did not feel smooth or genuine. It felt shoehorned in.Speaking of characters, I grew fond of Cara by the end of Allegiant. In Divergent, I thought she was just a one-dimensional bitch, but she grew and developed a LOT in Insurgent and Allegiant. She and Christina (who I liked from the get-go) are probably my favorite characters in the series.

I don't regret reading the series, but there is better out there.

I still have a ton of stuff in my reading backlog, so I don't know what I'll read next.

Finished Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay - It wasn't as good as his previous books, which I highly recommend(Sarantium series and The Last Light of the Sun specifically), but I still liked it. The guy I borrowed it from likened it to Dan Brown books, and I would agree. Simple, fast-paced, history based(in this case, Provence, France), thrilling. The main protagonist is a 15 year old boy, so it feels like a youth fiction book, but I recommend to anyone looking for a fun, fast read.

I'm starting up Mistborn #2, but it feels a little weird considering how complete the first book felt. I'm really inter4ested to see where the story goes.

Half way through A Dance With Dragons right now. You guys convinced me on the Black Company so I got that book and Books of the South collection yesterday in the mail. Looking forward to reading those.

It took me a while to get to it as I read Wheel of Time #3 and a few other books over the last two months or so, but I finally read book two of the Mistborn trilogy, Well of Ascension. While still a great book, I found that I was getting impatient with all of the little details and they seemed to make the book a bit of a slog. Still thoroughly enjoyed it for the most part, and I loved the twist at the end and now I have more questions as to what is going on in this world.

Anyway, Well of Ascension was pretty dense, so I'm taking a break for a few days by reading Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. It's a YA novel about a girl struggling with anorexia. I've read two of the authors other books, and though this one isn't my favorite so far, I think it probably is the most literary. Still a fairly easy read, but there is more depth to it than I had expected.

After I finish Wintergirls (probably Saturday), I'll start in on The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3).

The first book in Brandon Sanderson's giant fantasy epic series is free on Kindle now/today/for some length of time. If you have a Kindle or anything with a Kindle app and like fantasy, grab this while it's free! It's great, and it's a HUGE book. One where you'll appreciate carrying around the digital version instead of the physical one.